In my characters I typically look for someone who is down to earth, who has emotions, someone who has opinions. I would probably hate a character if they always went with the flow, if they were just a follower and they just did what everyone else was doing without questioning it. It would be a really boring book if the character didnt have a purpose, if they didnt represent something or stand for something. Most books I read have really developed characters, they are complex, just like we are. But I have read some book basically where the characters dont have much of a back story or purpose until the end, and if im being honest those books sucked, i had to re read them like 3 times to get all the way through it. Book that dont give you anything with the characters or a way to connect with them, well those books just aren’t as good.

The book A Monster Calls is about a young boy named Conor, Conor is having some struggles with school and his family, then the monster comes. At first we are unsure why exactly the monster is there, but throughout the book we learn why it has come and what it is here to do. This book is complicated, it kinda throws your emotions and makes you think. The monster and Conor don’t always agree, in fact most of the time they disagree, about what should happen and what right or wrong.

The big ideas in this book are pretty deep. One of these ideas is Battling our own monsters, our inner monsters. Conor has an actual monster, but we obviously dont, but we still fight monsters on a dialy basis. Another idea, is that we are all human, and that we all make human choices. The author touches this with the stories that the monster tells. As the story mves forward our opinions about these change.

Now lets talk about what I liked. I loved the wording of the book, and the way sentences move together, creating scenes and voices in my head, The wording of the book was just transporting, it felt like i was there watching it play by play. Another thing I loved was the pictures, i felt they they really helped me imagine the monster and the events that were happening. I really just loved the entire book if im being honest.

Some of the things i didnt like were for one how it ended. like seriously? Its kind of a crap ending. We couldnt have had any Closure at all? What the heck? It was really annoying to read how it ended, i was slightly pissed. Another thing I didnt like was that the monster is so harsh to Conor all the time and then all of the sudden it is all friendly.

This book matters because it hast great story, it has a nice plot and touches a lot of subjects that are important foe us to know and have opinions on. This book touches on our beliefs, and how important it is to stay true to them. It talks about how we are all human and that we all make mistakes. It lets us know that its okay to be upset, and angry. This book basically teaches us how to be success full in a way.

The monsters destroys the parsons house in the second tale even though the Parson was just trying to save his daughters, im mean come on. Like I understand that he shouldn’t have given up on his beliefs so easily, but who wouldn’t try anything, and i mean ANYTHING to protect their kids? I clearly don’t have kids but I know my parents would do anything for me. Seriously, if the only thing that would save my life would be for my parents to worship Satan they would. They probably wouldn’t even hesitate. And believing, you can believe in something and do the complete opposite, and i’m pretty sure a lot of people do, belief is just weird. You have to truly know/want/ i don’t even know how to describe it. Now I get that people shouldn’t change what they believe when the going gets tough, but what it sounds like the Parson tried. He tried everything to help but nothing worked. So what did we expect him to do? Not even bother asking the Apothecary? No he probably didn’t give up the fact that the apothecary was using witchcraft or whatever But what were his other options? Cross his fingers and hope for the best? And I think that this relates To Conor and his mom because the monster is trying to tell Conor to keep his beliefs, but only if he truly believes and doesn’t have any doubt

Indeed, stories don’t always end happily, But if they did, wouldn’t we get bored. We would just think it all ends with a happily ever after. We would expect everything to end happily. My mom always says,” A good story is a story that makes you feel something” And if every story was happy we probably wouldn’t FEEL anything while reading it. So sad stories, we read them to know the truth, and to feel something. We read them to relate to because life isnt happy.

Context: ” And because i’m thinking about cancer and this old guy in San Francisco with face blindness and Dr Amber Klein and aneurysms and how when you get down to it, so much of your life is out of your control, I decide to take control of something”

Their words: an excessive localized enlargement of an artery caused by a weakening of the artery wall. Google dictionary

Quote: “This isn’t about winning or losing. Its not a competition. This is about teamwork.”

Context: At this point in the book the main characters are in a counseling group. The teacher does weird fun things with them everyday. He is trying to show them that there isn’t winning or losing but its all about helping.

This makes me think: This makes me think about how when we are moving through life we can often think its about who will win, or lose. But in reality we should be helping one another out of holes and moving through life together. Life isn’t a competition, Its not a race, its more of a trial, of who can help, who can have fun while doing it, who can truly live. Life isn’t a race, we should help others walk alongside them, dig them out of holes, help them climb mountains. We all live together on one planet, we should be helping not hurting.